Save a Horse: Rescue and Rehabilitate Mustangs

Dear Supporters, 

Today there is a heartbreaking dilemma over America’s wild horses that currently roam in the western United States. These horses are under the protection and decisions of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), who currently have over 45,000 wild horses in holding pens waiting to be adopted or placed in a long-term sanctuary. Less than 35,000 are left in the wild.

There are programs designed to assist the BLM with the adoption and care of wild horses; our centre is one of these programs.During 2016, we took in 12 wild horses and 7 wild burros from the BLM’s holding facilities.

We run a training program that focuses on working with these animals, building their trust and confidence and making them able to be handled, groomed, worked on by a Ferrier, tied, and load into a trailer. All of these behaviours are necessary so they can be adopted. We are proud to say that all were successfully adopted in 2016.

WHRC’s president, Diane, is an approved Trainer Incentive Program (TIP) trainer. As a TIP trainer, you teach the wild horse to trust and also to lead, tie and pick up all four hooves. The first interaction with humans is vitally important for future adoption. If the horse feels comfortable from the beginning of the training it is more likely to be adopted into a good home. With this program, the TIP trainer’s goal is to reduce the number of abused horses

Meet Alicia and Euphoria

During the last quarter of 2016 WHRC’s volunteer coordinator Alicia, has been working with a wild horse named Euphoria. Euphoria was captured from the wild when she was 10 months old. For six years she lived in a holding facility at the BLM. In October Euphoria came to WHRC. Alicia worked diligently with Euphoria and was not only able to gentle and train Euphoria but also on 3 February 2017 they competed at the TIP Challenge in Okeechobee, Florida.

All 16 trainers were assigned a wild horse or burro to train for 120 days. In the competition, you competed in a handling and condition class, an in-hand trail class and a freestyle class. This was Alicia’s first mustang that she gentled by herself! In the competition they took second place in the in-hand trail class, third place in both Condition Class and Free-Style, resulting in a Reserve Champion overall.

Euphoria is now up for adoption.

The event in Okeechobee in February also included a BLM Wild Horse and Burro Adoption. WHRC brought home two TIP horses and one TIP burro to train.

Plans for 2017

For the upcoming year, WHRC is hoping to continue with our training program and be able to take in more wild horses and burros. We would like to become a storefront for the Mustang Heritage/ BLM Trainer Incentive Program, where we would bring in 10-20 wild horses at a time and prepare them for adoption.

When the horses come in wild they are required to be in a 6-foot high fenced pen. Today our wild horse pens are built of pipe panels. WHRC would like to improve these pens by building the fences out of wood instead of the pipe panels. Wood fences are more permanent and will lower the cost of replacing fencing when needed. Wood also offers a more natural feel to the animals helping in their conditioning from wild to tame. Our goal would be to have ten 24x24 foot pens. Having these new pens will allow us to take in 10 wild horses every six months.

A donation towards WHRC will make it possible for us to give these mustangs and burros a great start on their new life in captivity.

With gratitude,
The Wild Horse Rescue Centre